Solo Kurt
by Elle D'Elajoie
Summary: Kurt flies solo his senior year. The story becomes AU part of the way through "The First Time."


"Why are you yelling at me?"

"Because I've never felt less like being intimate with someone and either you can't tell or you just don't care. Where are you going?"

"I'm sorry if I'm trying to be spontaneous and fun. I think I'm just gonna walk home."

"Blaine!"

Blaine walked away through the parking lot.

"God!" he yelled.

Kurt shut Blaine's back door, got in the driver's seat and sat down. He couldn't just let Blaine walk away like that when he'd been drinking. He could get hit by a car or picked up by a stranger. He opened the car door back up quickly, locking it and took off running after Blaine. He caught up to him quickly because Blaine was walking quite slowly due to not quite being steady on his feet.

"Blaine, come on stop." Kurt grabbed his hand and Blaine stopped. "Come back with me to Scandals. Sober up and then you can drive home. You can't just run off like this. You drove your car here. I have your keys. You can't even get in your house IF you manage to make it there safely. Not unless you want to have one of your parents let you in and have them ask what happened to your car."

"Right, right. You're right. I can't go home without my keys or my car."

Kurt turned him around and they walked back to Scandals. "Let's go back inside."

Kurt led him back into the building. Sebastian was still there. And he looked utterly pleased to see Blaine back.

"Hey killer. Decide that you wanted to do some more dancing?" Sebastian asked suggestively.

"Yeah. He'll dance. He needs to dance off all the alcohol he consumed. Here's his keys. Make sure he gets home safely. That means you'll have to make sure he sobers up since you don't know where he lives - unless you've been stalking him, which wouldn't surprise me. In either case, I'm done for the night. You gave him alcohol. You deal with the after effects." Kurt handed Sebastian Blaine's keys and walked away.

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Kurt went outside and called Finn.

"Finn, I need you to come pick me up."

"Dude, wherever you are, I don't think I can get there and us make it back by curfew."

"I'll tell them it was my fault. I'll explain. Just come get me."

"Okay, fine, but I better not get in trouble for this." Kurt explained where he was to Finn on his way to his truck.

Fifteen minutes later, Finn pulled up and Kurt jumped in. "Just drive. Let's get home as quickly as we can."

They pulled back into the driveway 10 minutes after curfew.

"Just go inside and keep walking straight to your room. Shut the door and turn some music on. And forget this ever happened. I mean it. Tell no one." Kurt said with a very stern voice.

"Got it, dude. Scary Kurt voice. This never happened. I tell no one." Finn went up the stairs as soon as they went in the door.

Kurt stopped to talk to his parents.

"Don't mind him being late. It's not his fault. I needed a ride home and I didn't want to waste money on a taxi. If you're going to punish him for being late, whatever it is, I'll take his punishment on top of mine since it was my fault he had to come get me."

"That doesn't really sound right to me, Kurt," said Burt. "You never break curfew. Something happened. Why didn't Blaine bring you home?"

"We had a fight. That's all I can say right now. Can you just give me some time to process what happened? I'll talk about it if you insist, but not now."

"Kurt," Burt started to chastise him.

Carole interrupted, "Burt, just let him be for now. Obviously, he's upset. He did the right thing. He called a family member to come get him when something went wrong. Let's just let it be for now."

She turned and addressed Kurt, "Go to bed, honey. We'll talk later."

Kurt could hear Carole talking to his dad as he went up the stairs. "Burt, he was only 10 minutes late. He's 18. Just relax. He's a good kid."

"Fine, fine," he said.

Kurt got undressed and put on some exercise clothes. He put the clothes that he had been wearing in the laundry, but he knew he could never bring himself to wear that outfit again. It would remind him of the events of the evening, which were something he didn't want to be reminded of, ever. But unfortunately, he was going to have to face up to seeing Blaine tomorrow.

What was going on with Blaine anyway? A week ago, Kurt inquired about being more physically intimate with him and Blaine practically scoffed at the idea and joked about Kurt's layers and Kurt being comfortable. Tonight, suddenly, Kurt's comfort level is irrelevant and he just wanted to "do it" in the backseat of his car in a parking lot? From first base to home run? No thanks. Kurt had read those pamphlets. He knew what it would mean for him to end up on the receiving end with no preparation. Unless Blaine was hiding the proper tools in his car somewhere and the whole thing was premeditated, Kurt was bound for a world of pain, which didn't make any sense at all. There is no way Blaine had his comfort in mind in that scenario.

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He left his room to go talk to Finn. For one thing, he wanted to remind him of his absolute need for keeping quiet. He knocked on Finn's door. Finn opened it and let him in.

"Hey, dude."

"I need to talk to you." Kurt walked in, kicked some clothes out of the way and sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall under the window. "First off, thanks for coming to get me. You're not in trouble, by the way. And secondly, you absolutely cannot tell anyone where I was. I realized on the drive home that if anyone found out I was there, it could prevent Dad from getting elected. I was so stupid to go there. Keep it to yourself or we could risk Dad losing the election. Got it?"

"Got it. You were stupid. I'm not going to tell anyone because Burt could lose."

"Exactly."

"So, tell me how your date with Rachel went. I haven't talked to you since then. I know she was excited about it."

"Um, well that didn't go so well."

"What do you mean?

"Well, first I screwed up, but you can't tell her. I made her dinner, but I used real meatballs. She even commented about how much like real meat the 'meat substitute' tasted. She'll have a fit if she finds out."

"Got it. Never tell Rachel you forgot that she's vegan. So, we keep each other's secret."

"Right."

"So, the date, besides the meatball mix-up."

"Well, to be honest, it was really weird. She was being all seductive and I liked that, of course. She wanted to, well, you know..."

"Rachel? Miss 'I'm waiting until I win a big award' Berry?"

"Yeah. That was my reaction. Then she let it slip that she 'needed to get it done before opening night'," Finn said, using finger quotes.

Kurt looked perplexed.

"She said she couldn't play a girl who has a sexual awakening if she hadn't had one herself."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. That pretty much harshed my buzz, dude. No one wants to hear that they are just means to an end. She said she loves me, but dude, that just wasn't cool. It made me feel like crap."

"I can understand that. What are you going to do?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"Do you want to still date her?"

"I mean, I guess. I do love her, but that was just low. Maybe we need some time apart, maybe I'm just being too weird about it."

"Well, you have to do what you can live with."

"Yeah."

"I'm going to head to bed. Thanks for coming to get me tonight."

"No problem, dude."

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Back in his room, Kurt began to think in earnest. Rachel "needed" a sexual awakening and attempted to seduce Finn. Blaine tried to force, persuade, whatever Kurt into having sex in the back of his car. That was just too much of a coincidence. Kurt was feeling really angry and spiteful. He picked up his phone and texted Blaine.

To Blaine (11:45pm): I hope you got what you needed tonight. I'm sure that Sebastian was willing to give it to you. And just so you know, you're never going to get it from me. We're through.

Kurt couldn't decide for Finn, but he could decide for himself. He wasn't anyone's plaything or boy toy. He knew that Blaine didn't hold his alcohol well, but one beer was not enough to make him too drunk to know what he was doing. He wasn't sorry that he tried to coerce Kurt. He was mad that Kurt hadn't given in. No amount of apologizing could return the bond of trust that Blaine had broken.

Kurt went in his bathroom and took a nice long shower and went through his whole moisturizing routine. He was far too wired to sleep anyway. He spent the whole time going through his relationship with Blaine in his mind. He came to the conclusion that he had let himself be blinded by Blaine's shiny exterior - an out and proud gay teen. The first one Kurt had ever met.

Kurt realized that he should have let the whole idea of a relationship with Blaine drop after Rachel's party and the GAP Attack. Kurt wasn't Blaine's first or even second choice. But he was there. Just like tonight. He was there - a means to an end, like Finn had said. Sometimes Finn had flashes of brilliance. Well, Kurt was done with being anyone's last choice.

Even in coming to McKinley, Blaine had pushed Kurt even farther back into the shadows. Every guy in Glee that tried out for the play had gotten a singing part, except Kurt. Blaine auditioned for Tony when he said he wouldn't. None of the other guys did. They had kept their word. How could he expect to get into a performing arts school if he couldn't even get a singing part in a school play? It was time for a new plan. It was time for the return of the Ice King he had been before Karofsky had scared him into submission.

He'd go to Sue tomorrow and he'd offer to return to the Cheerios with the proviso that he only had to wear the uniform on game days for whatever team they were cheering for. If she wouldn't agree, then he'd find something else to do. He wasn't going to be completely railroaded by her. He needed more activities, but he needed his sanity too. And it was time to branch out. There had to be some type of community theater opportunities within driving distance of Lima. He'd start researching that the next day.

Glee. What was he going to do about Glee? Unless Blaine left and went back to Dalton, Kurt would have to deal with him and his spotlight hogging all year. Sectionals were coming up. He'd give Mr. Schue once last chance. He had told Kurt that he'd get a solo for Sectionals last year, but Kurt left for Dalton. If he didn't get a lead this year, he'd quit. It just wasn't worth the drama anymore. He only had less than two months to get college applications in.

Applications. Plural. He couldn't be stupid enough to think that he should only apply to once place, especially a place that admits so few students each year. He needed to find other places immediately. He'd spend the whole weekend researching. He did like to perform, but he liked other things as well. Learning to do anything that would get him a job somewhere besides Lima would be better than being stuck there. Time to open his mind and increase his chances of getting out.

He fell asleep going through the different possibilities of things he could study.

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Kurt woke up to the sound of his clock alarm ringing, which made him jump because he was used to using his phone as an alarm. He left his phone off and ignored it in favor of getting up and ready for school. Once he was ready, he turned the phone to vibrate only, put it in his pocket and went down to eat. He grabbed his satchel and jacket and headed out to his Navigator. He drove to the Lima Bean and ordered a coffee, got back in his truck and headed for school. Once he got there, he pulled his phone back out to read the messages, all from Blaine.

To Kurt (11:46pm): Where are you?

To Kurt (11:50pm): What do you mean?

To Kurt (11:52pm): My car is here, but I can't find you anywhere.

To Kurt (12:30am): Thanks a lot for abandoning me here. Seb won't give me my keys. I missed curfew.

To Kurt (1:30am): I'm sobered up now. Seb finally gave me my keys. I'm driving myself home now, no thanks to you for abandoning me. I'll probably be grounded for several weeks.

To Kurt (1:45am): I'm home. I just reread your first text. What do you mean we're through? Are you breaking up with me in a text message? That's low.

To Kurt (1:50am): Obviously, you are not going to answer me. Meet me in the choir room tomorrow 30 minutes before school.

Kurt checked the time. Ten minutes late. He went inside the school and went to the choir room.

"You're late."

"I just now read your messages. I came as soon as humanly possible."

"You broke up with me in a text message."

"I'm not answering or saying anything else until you answer a question."

"What?"

"Did you bring supplies last night? Were they in your car somewhere?"

Blaine shifted and avoided eye contact.

"Answer me," Kurt said resolutely.

"Yes. I went out and got some. They're in a sack under the passenger seat."

"Thank you for answering." Kurt turned to walk out the door.

"Kurt, you didn't answer me."

"Answer what?"

"Did you really break up with me via text?"

"I was pretty clear," Kurt said. "'We're through' isn't complicated."

"But Kurt... I love you."

"I believe that you think you do. But love doesn't cause people to do what you did, or well tried to do."

"I was drunk."

"I know about you and Rachel"

Blaine just stood there, unable to think of anything to say.

Kurt walked toward the door. "I expect you to keep this to yourself. My response will be that it is private and I won't answer questions. If I find out that you are telling people anything, and I mean anything besides to mind their own business, I will start telling the truth about why I broke up with you. So, I'd suggest that you say nothing." Kurt walked out the door.

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Opening night arrived. The play went reasonably well for its first night. The Warblers were there to watch, just as Kurt knew they would be since Blaine had given them all tickets.

None of them knew about the break up. Kurt hadn't told anyone. Blaine had obviously decided on the route of self-preservation and had also kept his mouth shut. After the show, the Warblers waited around to talk to Blaine. Kurt went to talk to Sebastian. He pulled him aside.

"Sebastian, can I speak to you?"

"Um, sure," he said as he followed Kurt out into the hall and down far enough that he couldn't be overheard.

"So, look, I know you want Blaine. He's a free agent now. I broke up with him last night. But I want to warn you. The Warblers will not take kindly to you using him as a plaything. If you're interested in dating him, then go for it. Just know that he is extremely needy and expects an enormous amount of attention to be paid to him. He is an attention seeker. That's what he craves. If you can't give that to him, then move on. Find someone else to be a notch in your belt. And no, I'm not slut shaming you. You are above the age of consent and how you live your life is up to you and not for me to judge. But I will tell you that if you treat him as a conquest, the Warblers will respond, and not kindly. Take my word for that from one Warbler to another."

"Why did you break up with him? Won't they be mad at you?"

"I'm not going to discuss why. You're the leader of the Warblers. Be a leader. Don't treat one of their own prized members like he doesn't matter. That won't go well for you."

"Well, I don't do relationships."

"Make sure HE knows that, if you decide to keep spending time with him."

"Why do you care?"

"Right now, I'm wondering that myself. Take my advice or don't. But either way, I'm not part of this situation anymore. Unless you are looking to make friends with an ice king prude, then I think this is probably goodbye." Kurt turned to walk out of the building.

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The Monday after the play ended, Mr. Schuester entered the choir room and said, "I'm afraid I have bad news. Blaine has transferred back to Dalton."

Rachel was angry, really angry. She glared at Kurt from across the room.

Tina asked, "Do you know why?"

Mr. Schuester just shook his head and moved on. "Who can name the biggest influences in pop music of the 80s?"

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To Kurt (3:00pm): You weren't kidding were you?

From Kurt (3:30pm): Who is this?

To Kurt: (3:31pm): Sebastian

From Kurt (3:31pm): How did you get my number?

To Kurt (3:32pm): Swiped it from Jeff's phone.

From Kurt (3:33pm): I see. What did you think I might have been kidding about?

To Kurt (3:35pm): Blaine and the attention seeking.

From Kurt (3:36pm): Let me guess. He came into practice and threw all of the music sheets up into the air and started singing while climbing on the furniture.

To Kurt (3:38pm): No, but that is an oddly specific guess.

From Kurt (3:39pm): That's because it's happened before.

Kurt dialed Sebastian's number. "So, you've decided to take me up on my offer of friendship or did you just text me to tell me that I was right?"

"Well, I'm not doing anything. Want to meet me halfway and get some coffee? The Lima Bean might be good, but not good enough for me to spend over three hours on the road. Bring your homework and I'll bring mine. We'll drink coffee and see if we have anything at all in common."

"Okay. Text me the address of the place where you want to meet. I'll leave in a few minutes. I just got out of Glee. I need to get my books and head out."

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Kurt actually enjoyed his time with Sebastian. He found that he was actually quite intelligent and funny. And his story about being in France was true and it gave Kurt someone to actually speak French with, which he was sorely missing being back at McKinley. Blaine was listed as a non-discussed topic as well as glee clubs in general. They got together once or twice a week depending on their schedules. Sebastian was a source of intelligent conversation. His dad was also a politician and he had big dreams for himself that he was working hard to achieve.

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Kurt had been disqualified from the election because Rachel stuffed the ballot boxes. How was that fair? He didn't do anything wrong. They should have just had the seniors vote again. If someone had stuffed the box with Rick's name, he would have demanded a redo and gotten it, but instead Kurt just got disqualified and Rachel got suspended and barred from competing at Sectionals.

The good news was that Sam was back and he was staying at Kurt's. He and Sam had hit it off the year before and he had missed having him around. He offered to start tutoring Sam immediately to get him caught up since it seemed that he either hadn't been going to school or hadn't learned anything when he was there.

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Kurt did the research and found a place about an hour from Lima that was doing a production of the Wizard of Oz for their winter showcase piece. He auditioned and got the role of the scarecrow.

He rejoined the Cheerios and Coach Sue agreed to his request to wear the uniform only on game days. The free gymnastics training was helpful for his role as the scarecrow.

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The songs for Sectionals were divided up fairly without Rachel to influence, aka badger, Mr. Schue for the lead. Kurt, Mike, Tina and Quinn spilt the lead for "ABC". "Control" was split between Puck, Artie and Sam, with Quinn doing the opening spoken part. "Man in the Mirror" was split between Finn, Kurt, Sam, Artie, and Puck. The only non-band member to not get a lead was Rory and that was because he turned it down, citing that he'd be too nervous. It was the first time Kurt actually felt like he was part of the team.

The Warblers were at the McKinley Sectionals seated down near the front watching carefully. They had won their sectionals the week before and wanted to scope out their competition for Regionals. Sebastian cheered them on.

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With Sam having moved in with them and the fact that their house had more space than anyone else's, the Glee guys tended to congregate at the Hummel's. Kurt tutored Sam and Sam gave him secret video gaming lessons. Kurt earned himself a place with the Glee guys through gaming. The first time he beat Puck at Halo, Puck was shocked.

"Why haven't you ever played with us before?"

Kurt's smart mouthed back, "You never asked."

Puck just laughed at him. "Touché, princess."

"Call me an effeminate nickname again and you'll be looking for your balls in the next county, Puck. I'm not a girl. I could prove that if you'd like, reaching down to unbutton his pants.

"Nah, nah. We're good. Keep your pants on. Plus, I've seen you kick. No need for a demonstration. No more girly nicknames. Got it."

Kurt nodded.

"Tiger? Sport?"

Kurt looked at him, crossed his arms, and rolled his eyes.

"Well, you hate 'dude'."

"My name is Kurt. How about you just use that?"

"Got it, Kurt."

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Sue was disappointed when Artie backed out of his agreement to perform at the homeless shelter for Christmas. Kurt stepped in and arranged for Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion to make an appearance at the event. They took photos with the kids using an instant camera and they sang for them and with them.

By Christmas, Kurt had applied to 6 different colleges and had sent in fashion portfolios to two of them. A couple of the schools were in Ohio, but the others were out of state. He was hoping for a good financial aid package from at least a few of the schools. He knew that he had his mom's life insurance money that his dad had invested for him to use for college, but it wouldn't be enough to cover the full tuition at an out-of-state school for four years.

Sam invited him to spend a week with him and Rory in Kentucky with his family. Kurt went grocery shopping before they left making sure to take enough food to feed the three of them for a week so as not to be a financial burden on Sam's already struggling family. He also bought two presents each for Sam's family members. One from himself and one he labeled from Santa. They had a lot of fun just playing with Stevie and Stacey. They went out to Goodwill and bought a few board games for a couple of bucks each and bought some kids books at 2/$1. Stevie and Stacey loved Rory's accent and he spent time teaching them Irish words.

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Kurt never reestablished his relationship with Rachel. Finn had come to the same conclusion that Kurt had back in November. He ended up breaking up with Rachel the night that Cooter didn't offer him a football scholarship. He realized that he and Rachel were not headed in the same direction and that he couldn't keep on pretending that they were.

Rachel was 100% on the "NYADA or bust" train. Kurt did apply, but he wasn't counting on getting in. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to get in, but he'd put forth the best audition he could if he got a call back.

Glee was more interesting because when the Trouble Tones lost at Sectionals, Mr. Schue gave all of the girls the option of joining New Directions and continuing to compete. Sugar joined and surprisingly, so did one of the Cheerios. And even more surprising was that one of the band members that had competed with them at Sectionals decided that he wanted to keep singing when they competed. He didn't perform in class, but he was a decent singer which helped fill out their sound and as an added benefit he could dance reasonably well. They now had 16 members, 8 girls and 8 guys.

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Sebastian had befriended Dave during his visits to Scandals. Dave had confided in him that he was still crushing on Kurt and that he thought he was in love with him. He shared this plan he had devised to send Kurt secret admirer gifts the whole week before Valentine's Day. Sebastian sat down and talked with him about it in person.

"Dave, please rethink your idea."

"Why?"

"Kurt has extended you his friendship. That's honestly more than most people would do in his position. You may love him, but think about this from his perspective. How could he ever trust you the way he would need to? He's not a person that trusts easily and he hasn't trusted you since... well, he probably never trusted you. Were you ever decent to him? He was in a see-through closet his whole life. No one ever thought he was straight, right?"

"Yeah, kids teased him and called him a girl and things like princess before they learned more words and started calling him a fag and other names, around middle school."

"So, in his lifetime, he has never trusted you or the people you were friends with, the jocks?"

"No, not really."

"From what I've heard, your friends used to toss him in dumpsters and more."

"Yeah."

"So, think about it. If you had been treated that way by someone, could you ever trust that person completely?"

"Probably not."

"Well, there's your answer. If you can't accept the friendship he's offered, that's okay. You can just let it fade out. You're graduating in a few months. Lots of high school friendships end when school ends. I know it sucks, man. But I've spent enough time with him to know that his walls are thick. And even though I have no clue what happened with him and Blaine, I know that whatever defenses he had let down to let Blaine close to him went right back up and are thicker than they were before. He is hell-bent on getting out of Lima. He's not going to date you, or anyone else for that matter. It's just not in the cards for the two of you."

By then Dave was struggling to hold back his tears. "It's just so hard. I've liked him since we were like 12."

"That sucks for you, but it doesn't change the fact that you were a dick to him for all those years. If it had just been name calling, he might have been able to get over it. But seriously, think about it. Can you honestly say it would be healthy for him to be in a relationship with someone who once threatened to kill him?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Just because there aren't any girls at Dalton doesn't make the rumor mill any less active. But I'd place my bet on the information coming from Blaine at some point. He was around back then and Kurt isn't the type to talk about private things. I certainly didn't hear it from him."

Dave nodded.

"You want something from Kurt that it is just wrong to ask of him. Either accept the friendship he offered or walk away, but don't put him in the position of having to try to let you down easy. That's just adding another mean thing to the list of things you've already done to him."

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The football team at Thurston had gotten bored with sitting around playing video games and drinking and planned to spend their next Friday evening doing something more interesting.

They met at one of the player's house after school and wore gloves to fill small water balloons with paint that was thinned just enough to get it into the balloons. They also brought in several dozen eggs for their event. After they got all of the balloons packed in a couple of coolers, they waited until later in the evening and they drove out to Scandals to egg and throw paint balloons at the local fags' cars and trucks.

They went in two vehicles to make the task go more quickly. They had tossers on both sides of the backseat. They made their pass through the parking lot and Nick Raines was riding in the passenger seat and he noticed a very familiar pick up truck. "Dude, look. That's Dave Karofsky's truck. I'm sure of it. Stop long enough to let me out and pick me up at on the street over there, where it's dark. I'm going to go look inside just to be sure. Give me your hat."

He put the hat on and tossed his letterman jacket in the seat as he jumped out of the car, which continued on its path of egg and paint destruction after he got out. He made his way to the door of Scandals. He pulled the hat down over his forehead and stepped inside. The bouncer wasn't at the entrance, so he just took a few steps in which was enough to see Dave sitting at the bar. He turned and left as quickly as he could. He ran around the back of the building and toward the street to the meeting point.

"I was right. Dave Karofsky is in there. He's a fag. He's been in our locker room this whole time. He's gotta pay for this."

That Monday at school didn't go well for Dave. He was outed and beaten up by several members of the football team. They all rallied together and no one broke the code of silence. Dave's Facebook page was full of posts encouraging him to kill himself. When he read what they had written, he went home and followed their advice - or at least tried to. His dad came home from work early and went to look for him in his room when he didn't respond to his name. He found him in time.

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Kurt and Sebastian visited Dave in the hospital. They got him to log into Facebook and they purged his friends list and blocked every person that had posted negative things on his wall, but only after they had taken screenshots of every one of them. Even if the police wouldn't do anything, they planned to send the information to the school in an effort to get the bullies suspended or expelled.

The Warblers collected money at Regionals for the Born this Way Foundation to raise awareness for bullying and the consequences and to support people who needed it. They performed "Stand" and "Glad You Came". Sebastian sang lead on both.

He had managed to keep his lead singer position even after Blaine had gone back to Dalton. The council had realized that it they were going to have any chance at beating the New Directions that they couldn't keep with their status quo shuffle step dance moves. Sebastian was a really good dancer. Blaine challenged him several times by proposing songs and performing them, but the council required the songs be presented with at least four participants so that potential dance moves could be shown along with the song itself. Blaine wasn't a strong dancer and he wasn't a good choreographer, so the council continually chose Sebastian and his songs.

The New Directions sang "I Can Fly" with the lead split between Sam, Kurt, Rachel, Mike, Finn, Quinn and Puck. Santana, Mercedes and Brittany spilt the lead on "Stronger" with the all of the girls dancing and singing back up. All of the seniors had a moment to shine with the division of the first two songs.

Their last song was "Here's to Us", which was a huge fight to put together because Rachel demanded that she be allowed to sing it as a solo. Kurt pushed the issue to a secret ballot vote. Rachel lost. The lead was split two people singing the melody in unison with the group providing the harmony as the lead was passed through the group. Rachel and Olivia, Tina and Quinn, Mercedes and Sugar, and Santana and Brittany were the paired female leads and Artie and Rory, Finn and Mike, Puck and Greg, and Sam and Kurt were the male pairs.

In the end, the evidence that Sebastian and Kurt turned over to Dave's school was used to suspend several students and expel a few others. Once heads started to roll, people broke the pact of silence and the members of the football team that participate were turned in when the school threatened to kick all of the players off the team and forfeit the whole season. In addition to that, one of the team members anonymously contacted the police about the vandalism at Scandals. One of the team members went along with things, but secretly took photos because he disagreed with what was taking place. Several members of the team ended up in juvie and the others were given community service along with being expelled or suspended.

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Both Rachel and Kurt got callbacks from NYADA. Rachel did a fantastic rendition of "Don't Rain on my Parade" and Kurt performed "Not The Boy Next Door", which brought a good bit of praise from Madame Tibideaux. Kurt also got auditions from a couple of other schools along with a request for more costuming and design work.

By early April, Kurt was starting to get letters. He was surprised to find that none of them were rejection letters with the exception of one and that one came with a personal letter from Madame Tibideaux herself. She explained to him that she loved his performance and that she found him to be at an acceptable level of talent to be admitted to the program that he had applied for, but she cited that there would be a very limited number of parts that would suit his unique voice and that while he would be suitably qualified to get a part someday, she suggested that he choose another area of study for college. She encouraged him to pursue his dream of performing on Broadway, but suggested to him that he find another part of the performing field to excel at that would provide him with more potential employment opportunities.

While he was disappointed, he was also aware that he would be overlooked many times due to his physical traits and his voice when directors were looking for male leads. He had come to that same conclusion last fall. He felt good about the fact that she said that he was talented enough to be a part of the program. He was offered some partial scholarships at a few schools. He needed to sit down and compare all of the costs and options before making a final decision.

Rachel got an acceptance letter to NYADA. The letter inside her envelope congratulated her on learning to be part of the team that season. It indicated that her previous CV entries had pointed to the fact that perhaps she was being given preferential treatment, but that seeing that she had the ability to perform well in a group helped Madame Tibideaux to accept her into the program.

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The Cheerios won the National title again that spring. The trio that Santana, Brittany and Kurt performed brought the crowd to their feet.

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By late April, everyone in Glee had made up their minds about their college choices and they had a reveal party one afternoon after school before they started focusing on Nationals, which they were going to actually prepare for adequately, not attempt to write songs the day before the competition.

At the party, each senior stood up and said what they were planning to do after graduation.

Kurt - Music school in Rhode Island

Rachel - NYADA

Finn - Community college

Puck - Get a job

Mike - The Ailey School in New York

Mercedes - Back up singer on an indie label in L.A.

Sam - Art school in Rhode Island

Santana - University of Kentucky

Brittany - University of Kentucky

Quinn - Yale

Kurt and Sam did not mention the name of their school specifically at the party, nor did they tell anyone before the end of the school year. They had both applied to the same school and had been offered partial scholarships. Kurt was planning to major in costume design and minor in voice. Sam hadn't decided a concentration area yet. They were going to be roommates, but even though the overall amount of bullying had dropped dramatically, Kurt didn't want Sam to end up on the receiving end of any, so they kept their plans to themselves.

A lot of people were surprised that Sam was graduating because he was in several classes with the juniors in the group. He had repeated a couple of classes that he had failed the fall before and had not been able to take the second half of those classes last year. He had taken extra art classes the previous spring to fill the empty slots and that's when he discovered how good he was at pottery and painting. Since he had no where to take his art work at the end of the previous year when his family had lost their house, Kurt had taken it and stored it in one of the downstairs storage areas in their house and Sam had left it there when he moved away. He had used those pieces and some new ones for his portfolio when he applied to art schools.

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The New Directions were asked to sing at Prom again. A large portion of the group was single this year and the whole group decided to go together. They danced with each other and changed partners to make sure everyone had fun and got to dance if they wanted to. Puck, Sam and Mike even persuaded Kurt to dance with them. They all enjoyed themselves.

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The school year wound down and it was time for Nationals. Sebastian, Dave, Nick and Jeff drove to Chicago to watch Kurt perform. Sebastian and Kurt had become good friends over the course of the school year. Nick and Jeff had also spent time with Kurt during the school year, oftentimes coming with Sebastian to meet Kurt for coffee and studying. Other times, the four of them would go out and do things together in Columbus or other nearby places. They had found several 18 and up clubs in Columbus that were fun to go to and they'd spend the weekend at Sebastian's house just northwest of Columbus. Kurt and Dave had a somewhat tentative friendship, but it was growing. Kurt would never come to trust Dave as a close friend, but he was there for Dave like he said he would be that day in the hospital.

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The duet for the competition was put up to a vote with people submitting potential duet partners and the top five nominees were voted on again to determine a winner. Kurt and Rachel were chosen as the two to perform together. They chose to sing "For Good" like they had the year before on the stage in New York.

The girls performed "Edge of Glory" with Santana and Mercedes singing the melody and a counter melody with the rest of the girls performing background vocals with a few highlighted solo parts by other girls.

The final song was "Dashboard Lights" which highlighted 3 different male/female duet leads. Puck and Quinn sang the first part, Sam and Brittany sang the second part and Rachel and Finn sang the ending section.

There was stiff competition with a lot of really talented groups. The New Directions were really tense as the winners were announced.

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"The 2012 National Show Choir Champions... from McKinley High in Lima, Ohio - the New Directions."

Everyone in the group started whooping, jumping up and down and hugging each other on stage.

Sebastian, Dave, Nick and Jeff cheered with the crowd when the New Directions name was called. Kurt knew they were there supporting him, but they didn't approach him, not wanting to cause any issues with the rest of the New Directions in their hour of triumph.

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Their return to school was shocking. There were banners and students in the halls waiting to cheer for them. And just when Kurt was certain he was about to be slushied, two cups full of confetti were thrown at him. The hall to the choir room was lined with students congratulating them and continuing to throw confetti. It was like their very own ticker tape parade. A jock hugged him. It was completely unexpected.

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Graduation came and went. High school had finally ended. The New Directions had all wanted to go to a theme park for Ditch Day, but none of the parks were open at that point because it was too early in the season, so they chose the Monday after graduation to take a trip to Cedar Point. Everyone in the club that wanted to go and could make it was there, not just the seniors. It was a great daylong send-off party, something they could all look back on and remember.

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The summer saw them dividing - some left to never return, while others never left at all.


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